It doesn’t take more than a quick visit to the southwest side of campus to understand that Georgetown athletics is undergoing significant changes. While the touching-up of Yates Field House provides the most visible alteration for most students, Georgetown’s intercollegiate athletic center, McDonough Gymnasium, has both new aesthetics-a paint job and carpeting-and new tenants. Since the firing of former men’s basketball Head Coach Craig Esherick last spring, five other significant positions have been filled, extending from head coaches in other sports, to the administration of the Athletic Department itself. The most consequential appointment has been the July 1, promotion of former Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Legal Affairs, Adam Brick, to interim Athletic Director. In an exclusive interview, The Voice spoke with the new Athletic Director in his McDonough office about these changes and his plans for the upcoming school year and beyond.
Voice: With all the changes that the Athletic Department has undergone recently has the overall guiding philosophy of the Department changed as well?
Brick: It’s the same as it’s always been. We’re going to educate our student athletes both on and off the court, we’re going to it with integrity and we’re going to win. We’re dedicated to the overall well being of the student athlete. The personnel have changed, but the philosophy hasn’t.
Voice: Can you point to some specific changes that you’re particularly excited about?
Brick: Obviously, Coach Thompson is exciting for the men’s basketball program. We’re real excited about Coach Williams-Flournoy for women’s basketball and I’m personally excited that [Associate Athletic Director for Sport Administration] Kim Simmons returned after resigning as women’s Lacrosse Coach.
Also, they did a tremendous job redesigning the weight area and the cardio area at Yates and I think that’s an exciting thing for students on the campus.
We’re going to try at some point this year create a student-athlete lounge in [McDonough] since student-athletes spend so much time down here. Even if it’s a small room-which undoubtedly it will be because we don’t have any large rooms in here-it can still be a place where student-athletes can congregate somewhere. I think that will be one of our biggest initiatives this year.
Voice: What is the current state of on-campus facilities?
Brick: In McDonough, we’ve done what I call just paint and carpet to make it look a little nicer. It’s an outstanding practice facility for both basketball teams. I’ve been to a couple of meetings, but I’m still a neophyte when it comes to the boathouse. We have resident experts and I’m not one of them. The nice thing about our staff is that we’ve got a number of quality people, so I don’t have to be an expert in every area.
We’re also working the track team’s venue, the Ellington track [located at 38th street and Reservoir Road]. We will hopefully soon finalize the necessary agreements with the District of Columbia Public School System where we can go ahead, get that project started and hopefully have it done. We’re trying to set up a five-year agreement with DCPS for shared use between us, the District and residents and our hope is to get that ironed out and get the track renovated before winter.
Voice: How about the multi-sport facility?
Brick: We’re meeting at the end of September to try to finalize things. It would be premature now to tell you exactly what’s going to happen because it’d be guesswork.
Voice: How about an on-campus basketball facility?
Brick: We have one; it’s called McDonough. We play basketball on-campus here, don’t we? But seriously, I think that’s something that’s probably on everybody’s wish list. However, we play in a great facility at the MCI Center. It’s one of the best basketball arenas in the country, period, whether professional or college. We have a great relationship with the people at the MCI Center. We already partnered with them on one NCAA Tournament and we’re about to partner with them on two more in 2006 and 2008. We’re happy with the MCI Center; it’s a good relationship.
McDonough is a great practice facility for the men. It’s a very good competition facility for the women both in basketball and volleyball. Whether or not we move down the other path, at this point I couldn’t tell you.
Voice: What is the overall status of your position? In other words, is the “interim” title actually “interim”?
Brick: All I can tell you is that [University President] Dr. DeGioia has asked me to provide leadership to the Department, which I’m doing and then regarding the process, that’s up to Dr. DeGioia. I don’t have an answer for that. I’m just doing what he asked me to do.
Voice: So, is there a timetable for a permanent replacement?
Brick: Again, that’s a question you’d have to ask Dr. DeGioia.
Voice: What is the most challenging aspect of the position that you’ve encountered so far and what’s been the most rewarding?
Brick: The most challenging has been getting up to speed on various things that I haven’t necessarily been involved with before. There certainly has been a learning curve. I think I’m on the serious upside on that now. But the two months have gone by very quickly.
Voice: Anything specific?
Brick: No, not really. It’s just everything. There’s just a lot of stuff particularly as it’s the beginning of the new school year. Having to hire a new women’s basketball coach, we had to pay particular attention and detail to that to make sure that we got it done right. I’m very confident that we did that. I had to spend some time re-recruiting Kim Simons, so those were individual challenges. When you lose someone like Joe Lang, who retired, and when Denis Kanach left back in April, that’s 60-odd years of intercollegiate athletics experience and Joe hadn’t replaced Denis up until the end of the school year. I’d say overall the challenge has been getting up to speed on all these issues.
The most rewarding was the first game I attended: the men’s soccer game vs. Delaware. It turned out to be a win and it turned out to be [Head Coach Tabatznik’s] 200th.
Voice: How has your legal background helped to prepare you for this position? How about your previous post at Georgetown?
Brick: I think the legal background helps, but I think it’s the overall experience that I’ve had from when Frank Rienzo was the Athletic Director through Joe Lang, with the varying things that they allowed me to do and asked me to do. It wasn’t just legal issues. I’ve had a broad-based experience in intercollegiate athletics because both of them allowed me to do that here. I think they both individually and together prepared me well for today.
Voice: How many people have you overseen before this position in various aspects of your career at Georgetown?
Brick: The number of people I couldn’t tell you, but in my most recent position I was overseeing 10 of our sports and sort of overseeing our fundraising. I’ve never really counted the number of people under me, but I’ve had a handful of sports and fundraising under me for the last couple of years.
Voice: Anything else you want to add that I haven’t asked about the state of the Athletic Department or your goals in the upcoming year?
Brick: I don’t think our goals are any different: We want to make sure we educate the kids, do it with integrity and be successful in our sports. We’re trying to get some exciting things going around athletics.
I’m really looking forward to working with Hoya Blue. They have had some good interaction with members of our staff so far. I know that [football Head] Coach Benson and Coach Tabatznik were at the New Student Orientation pep rally, as was I. We making sure we connect with the student body for all of our sports. Coach Tabatznik said it best at the pep rally: Back in ‘94 and ‘97 when we were in the NCAA’s, a big part of that was the support from the student body at games. We’d like to continue to get that support at all of our campus events. It’s just a great opportunity for the campus environment and campus community.
